JaeJoong stretched after getting out of bed and decided to head downstairs for breakfast. On his way down, he heard voices and his eyes widened when they landed on SeulGi.

She looked at him with sad eyes and then looked away. She was sitting with her parents and his appa talking about something. "Ne. I understand." 

"What's going on?" JaeJoong asked as he reached the bottom of the stairs. 

They all turned to look at him, and his appa smiled. "Ah, JaeJoong, my son. I'm so glad you could join us. We were just talking about you." He patted the seat next to him. "Have a seat."

"Your appa called us over here to discuss a very important matter that may help benefit both of our famlies," SeulGi's appa said with a smile. 

JaeJoong's eyes became trained on SeulGi as he asked bitterly. "And what might that be?"

"Marriage," was his appa's reply. "The Bae family has been a long term ally and friend of our family, so I figured why not marry my son to their beautiful daughter. Our businesses will boom like never before, and because the both of you are already such good friends the both of you probably won't mind." He turned his attention to SeulGi. "Isn't that right, SeulGi?"

JaeJoong's eyes widened as he stared down at the table in front of him.

"N-Ne, Mr. Kim." 

"After all, we can no longer trust the Jung family," his appa added causing JaeJoong to turn his attention to him.

"Appa... what are you talking about?"

Mr. Kim looked at him sternly. "The Jung family. Our previous best friends have sided with the Joo family."

"Indeed," SeulGi's eomma chipped in while shaking her head disgraced. "Who would've thought they'd be so bold about it."

Without a second thought JaeJoong was up and running out of the house.

SeulGi stood without giving them a chance to say anything. "Mainhe. Allow me to go talk to him." She bowed and followed after him and outiside into the Kim families large backyard. "JaeJoong wait. Please." 

He stopped walking but didn't turn around to face her. "Stripped of everything by the time I graduate. I'm supposed to give up everything, and now I'm being forced to marry one of my closest friends." He turned around to look at her. He was calm. Almost too calm. "Does that seem fair to you?"

"Ani... JaeJoong... but...," she stuttered over her words not sure if she knew of any way to comfort him or not. 

"But what?" he finally snapped. 

"It couldn't be that bad since we're familiar with each other. All you'd have to do was bare with it until you were free to marry whoever you pleased," she tried to reason.

His eyes softened then and he said, painfully, "I've never been able to just do as I pleased, SeulGi. Does he hate me so much that he..."

"JaeJoong. Your appa is a difficult man, but for the first time in my life I've never seen my parents look so... scared of another person..."

"SeulGi-ah..."

She took a couple steps closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder as tears spilled from her eyes. "I'm even scared. My parents... they won't tell me anything. They just keep telling me to marry you... and I..."

He reached up to wipe her tears away with his thumb, silencing her, his eyes saddening. "Mainhe... I need... some time to think...," was all he said before he pulled away from her, turned, and made his way around the house to the garrage. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Boa paced around the front of the school kicking at the gravel in front of the gated entrance as she waited. YunHo had sent her a text message this morning asking her to meet with him at the school. Though, she didn't understand why he would want to meet with her, after so long, on a day when they didn't even have school. 

The ball was tomorrow. She still needed to prepare for it and with work on her list as well, she didn't have much time to wait.  Just when she reached into her jeans pocket to pull out her phone she saw a car pulling up to her. The car pulled over on the side of the road, and she watched as the rear door opened. But the person that stepped out of the car wasn't YunHo...

It was someone she hoped she'd never have to see again in her entire life...

The only person in this world that she actually hated... and was afraid of...

"Boa...," he mouthed as he made his way over to her. "It's good to see you after so long."

"M-MinKyoo. W-What do you want?" she asked shakily, backing away. "Where's, YunHo?"

He smiled gently, but she knew that there was nothing gentle about his smile. "YunHo couldn't make it. You see... he works for me now." He paced around her, his smile growing. "It's strange. When he told me he was dating a girl named Boa I thought that maybe it was just... another Boa. Not the one I grew up with. Not that pretty girl that I fell in love with." Raising his hand, he twirled a strand of her hair around his index finger. "You've become so beautiful."

"Don't touch me," she snapped and slapped his hand away. 

He clenched the hand that she slapped away, and released a short laugh. "I get it. You're..."

"Yah," someone yelled from the distance. 

It sounded like... 

MinKyoo and Boa turned to look at none other than JaeJoong walking over to them.

"What are you doing on our school grounds," he asked MinKyoo venomously once he'd reached them. 

The hatred in MinKyoo's eyes had never been more evident, but he smiled anyway, despite himself. "I was just paying an old friend a visit," he replied as his eyes drifted back to Boa, his smile still in place. 

He glanced at Boa, and then looked back at MinKyoo. "I don't care what business you have here. You're trespassing."

Those words. They made MinKyoo laugh. "Yah... yah...," he said in between chuckles. "Yah, JaeJoong." His laughter died down and he cleared his throat.  "You don't know yet do you?"

JaeJoong raised a single eyebrow as he watched the other try to control his laughter. "Know what?"

Taking a step towards JaeJoong, the corner of his mouth lifted. "Whether you inherit your appa's position or not, everything will end up in shambles before you. The people you love, will leave you behind. The businesses you've built will go bankrupt. You will lose everything. It's only a matter of time before you're alone... again..."

Boa watched JaeJoong's eyes widen.

"Do you remember," MinKyoo continued. "Do you remember the lost soul you once used to be? Losing your eomma at such a young age. Losing your appa because he buried himself in his work after the death of his wife. He can't even look at his own children. He can't even celebrate his own children's birthdays. He left you and your little brother alone. He left the two of you to rot. You're nothing to him, and eventually you'll be nothing to everyone else around you. I've always wondered if it still hurt. If it still hurt knowing that in reality you're nothing." MinKyoo tilted his head to the side when JaeJoong lowered his head while clenching his fists at his sides. "For years I tried to figure out how to break you, and I think I've finally found it. Take. Everything. That. You. Hold. Dear. Away. From. You. I think it's going to be..."

"Enough," Boa yelled. "MinKyoo! That's enough!"

Eyes narrowing, MinKyoo turned to look at her. "How dare you..."

"I said, it's enough," Bow cut him off sharply. "What right do you have? You act like your family is so damn perfect. What about your of a mother?"

MinKyoo's eyes widened. 

Boa looked at JaeJoong whose body was tense and his eyes were closed. "Don't listen to him. You aren't alone. I'm not going anywhere. I promise. I...," it had happened so sudden. The hard slap that had knocked her to the ground.

Snapping out of his thoughts, JaeJoong didn't hesitate and was at her side in a second. "Are you alright?" Her cheek was red, her lip bleeding, and her eyes wide. She was in shock. Shakily, she raised a hand to her cheek as tears slipped from the depths of her eyes. When she didn't answer him, he moved to rise, but she gripped the collar of his hoodie. 

"Don't," she said looking at him. "Don't... fight him... it'll only make it worse. Please. Do me... this one favor."

JaeJoong's eyebrows furrowed, but he nodded and stayed by her side. 

"So stupid, yet so wise. Ne. Fighting me would only make matters worse for the Kim family." MinKyoo released a deep breath to control his anger as he glared down at them. "You're precious JaeJoong will soon bow before me, wench. And I'll make you my slave. We'll see whose more qualified to be a then." With that, he turned to get in the car he'd arrived in. Once inside, the window slid down for him to speak his final words. "I'll be seeing you... soon." ... and the car sped off.

JaeJoong stood and pulled a set of keys out of his pocket. "Stay here," he said to Boa as he ran to open the school gate. After pushing it open, he walked back over to her. "I'm going to carry you to the nurses office." 

"You don't have..." 

"Shut up and just trust me," he said sternly as he slipped his arms underneath her. 

She just nodded and yelped when he swiftly picked her up bridal style. 

He stood there for a moment and seemed to be pondering something. 

"What is it," she asked.

"Hm. You're light. I always thought you would be..."

"Don't even," she said glaring at him playfully.

He smiled softly and glanced down at her. It had been his attempt at trying to lighten the mood. And obviously, according to Boa as she smiled and buried her face in his chest while he walked, it had worked to some extent. Miraculously, he'd managed to carry her all the way to the nurses office. JaeJoong gently set her on the bed before going over to search in some of the cabinets for a First-Aid kit. Once he found it, he walked back over to Boa. He set the kit next to her and took his hoodie off so that he wouldn't feel so constricted while treating her wounds.

Boa's cheeks darkened and she looked anywhere but at him. He'd had a plain, grey v-neck shirt on underneath his hoodie. But as plain as the shirt may have been, JaeJoong's well-toned body was far from plain. Through the corner of her eye, she watched him run his fingers through his hair and pull a chair up so that he was sitting in front of her. No matter how hard she tried, she could no longer deny that JaeJoong was pure perfection. 

"This might hurt," he said on a sigh. When his fingers caressed her uninjuredcheek, her blush deepened. "Look at me."

Hesitantly her gaze met his. "M-Mainhamnida... oppa... for all the trouble." He only shook his head and dug in the kit for some antiseptic. Boa assumed that he was probably mad at her until...

"Baboya... protecting someone like me..."

How could he not see that he was worth it?! "Is that really... what you think? I'll be completely honest there are times when you're a complete , and I can't stand being around you." She didn't stop when his eyes narrowed at her. "But I learned that there's much more to you than that. It's like you told me. There can be so much more to a person than what you see on the outside... and..."

JaeJoong scoffed and stood. "Like always... you talk too much...," it irritated him looking at her face, seeing the big bruise on her cheek, the cut on her lip, and most of all the way she was acting like it was nothing. It pissed him off that she'd gotten injured and he hadn't done anything to stop it.

"Aniyo. You're just mad because I'm being honest," she pouted. 

"Aish," he groaned in irritation. "Why are women so frustrating?"

Boa laughed at that but winced when an intense pain surged through her cheek causing her to screw her eyes shut. "Oww." When the pain passed, she opened her eyes to look at him again only to recieve... 

"Has he.. ever hit you before?" he dared to ask. "Back there... the two of you know each other, right?" He saw something flash in her eyes. Sadness? Irritation? Ani... he'd seen it in his appa before... it was resentment... 

"I think you already know the answer to that," was her blunt reply.

The pained look in her eyes made him regret even asking the question. He only had to take a step for the space between them to almost amount to zero. Leaning over her a bit he placed one hand on the bed and raised her head with his other hand so that she was looking at him. Her eyes were wide and she was trembling. "I won't let him hurt you again." The look in his eyes was gentle, intense and determined all at once.

Boa's reply was to close the space between them by wrapping her arms around his waist and bury her face in his chest. He was the first person she'd known that had been able to make her feel safe. She believed that he wouldn't hurt her. Even if his temper was as bad as the students claimed it was. "Do you... promise?"

"... you have my word."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: Hello there fellow readers and subscribers. :D As you can see the love triangles are beginning to make themselves more evident. What will JaeJoong choose I wonder, and how will his decision affect those around him? :O Reviews are loved. <3